Carol in Wonderland
by breizhbit
Summary: Syfy's Alice. Due to a misguided desire to win over his maybe-probably-maybe-not future mother-in-law and prove to her that her husband didn't leave her-at least, not of his own volition-Hatter spirits Carol away to Wonderland. AliceHatter
1. Chapter 1

_"David," _Carol called, eliciting a wince from her daughter's be-hatted suitor. It always sounded that way lately, as if she didn't quite believe that was his name. The cheek! It most certainly was! Well, at least it was a part of his actual name though it had not been used by anyone for centuries, but there was no way the wretched woman could know that, now was there?

"Alice said she'll be about an hour late. One of her students suffered a minor injury in class, and Alice wanted to stay with him at the emergency room until his family arrives. You're welcome to stay here and wait for her."

Carol finished this speech as she walked into the room where he was sitting, somehow giving him the impression that he was not quite so welcome as she said. Where, oh where had he gone wrong? He'd made such a good first impression on her when he'd telephoned from the hospital, where he'd reluctantly taken Alice after she'd failed to wake up after coming through the looking glass. He'd sounded so lost and earnest and full of concern for her daughter that Carol had graciously asked him to come round to visit Alice once she'd been moved home.

He'd tried so hard to look presentable and like an actual human person. Before coming through the looking glass to visit Alice's home, he'd glamoured himself around the eyes and hair a bit to get a more conventional human appearance going, and had even forgone a hat, partly because he couldn't decide which twenty-first century hat suited him the best, but partly because he wanted to seem respectful. Meeting Carol at the door had frankly been a blur--everything until holding Alice in his arms, kissing her, telling her how he'd missed her. It was lovely, everything he'd hoped, and yet, in that honest moment of heartfelt revelation, it seemed he'd lost the respect of her mother.

"_David_," she'd said when they came up for air, "Why didn't you tell me you and Alice knew each other?"

He'd been a bit too blitzed to come up with one of his patented fix-all stories. It was totally true about human emotions coming over strong on the folk of Wonderland. The frail masses could hardly take a drop of contentment and still remain standing, and though Hatter was one of the more solid denizens of Wonderland, able to hold his tea as it were, being this close to such an amazing array of emotions, being the target of them even, it was all he could do to keep conscious. Relief, elation, surprise, adoration, all washed over him in a dizzying rush. Alice's emotions, he told himself, were better than just any oyster's. They were genuine, and strong, and full of conviction.

While he was thinking all of these rather important thoughts, however, Alice was stuttering out some lame excuse about having met him on her trip to England last summer not thinking she would ever see him again. Her face was red, and it did not take someone who knew her as well as her own mother to know that this story was rather fishy. Hatter caught the tail end of it and wished she'd given him a moment to recover, as he was a much better liar than she would ever be, but the damage was done. At that moment, holding Alice and looking into her blushing face, he couldn't have cared less.

Now, however, he was really wishing he'd built up a bit more of a tolerance to happy-Alice before experiencing it in front of her mother. It had been about two weeks, Alice-time, since the reunion in her apartment and as he had no place to stay in her world, he'd been shuttling back and forth between worlds, causing the suits to grumble that they might as well make him queen what with the way he seemed to hold complete control over the ring, somehow strong-arming the king into delivering the ring to the looking glass to charge it up whenever he wanted to go through. Though he'd never admit it, Hatter was very grateful to Jack Heart for allowing him to get his tea shop back up and running (albeit in a more legitimate form) while dashing back to court Alice on the other side. The biggest problem with the situation, from Hatter's perspective, was that there was no way to definitely pinpoint the time exchange between Wonderland and Alice's world. First of all there was the threat that there would be a sudden shift in the link and Hatter would get to one side or the other hundreds of years after he'd left. This hadn't happened for centuries, but it was still a frightening thought. More pressingly though, at the present rate a week or so in Wonderland was roughly an hour on the other side, but there seemed to be all sorts of extraneous factors that interfered with this. For example, whenever it was raining in Alice's world, Hatter was always several hours to a day earlier than he intended, forcing him to wander about in the rain until Alice was awake or done with classes, or whatever it was that was keeping her from him. He'd used this time to make a quick buck amusing tourists in cafes with sleight of hand and other simple tricks, allowing him to take Alice out in style. Still, the inconvenience was considerable.

At other times he was quite late, whether due to meteorological effects or the price of tea in China he knew not, and this was apparently a black mark against him in Carol's eyes. He wasn't a bloody White Rabbit for goodness sake, yet Carol seemed to hold him up to a rabbit-like standard of punctuality. It seemed like Alice being late would make a nice change, but Carol seemed to consider his presence in her home as further evidence of his unsuitability.

Hatter felt quite irritated at the disapproval lurking in her eyes despite the pleasant expression on the rest of her face. It just wasn't fair that this woman who was so important to Alice refused to accept him. After sulking for a moment or two as Carol gracefully turned to straighten something or other on the mantle, Hatter forced himself to calm down a bit. Much as he wished he got on a little better with Carol, he could see where she was coming from. He lifted his newsboy-style cap to tug at his hair a bit. Her life hadn't been easy. He'd heard bits here and there from Alice, and had started to put the pieces together.

Carol had been a stay-at-home mother when her husband had disappeared on his way home from teaching class at the University ten years ago. She had loved her husband, and was as devastated as Alice when he'd disappeared. Though they'd had a hefty life-insurance policy, she hadn't been able to draw on it because the leeches at the insurance company had "proof" that he hadn't died. They told Carol that Robert Hamilton had just skipped out on his wife and daughter after withdrawing almost all the funds from their joint savings account and buying a plane ticket to Argentina. After this information had gotten around the neighborhood, it was all Carol could do to hold her head up.

The whole setup seemed like a bit more work than the usual oyster-abduction, but Hatter supposed that the doctors and suits who'd dug up Robert Hamilton, Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, might have noticed the name of his daughter and figured better safe than sorry. There was nothing to suggest abduction or foul play, only a mundane occurrence of a man fed up with his life, leaving to start afresh on another continent.

Carol had moved Alice to their present apartment, then a crumbling factory loft, all that they could afford with what was left of their savings and the sale of the little yellow house while still keeping Alice in the karate classes she loved. Carol started work in a shop, taking classes at night until she got her degree in interior decorating. It was rather admirable, Hatter thought, but all the same her husband's supposed abandonment seemed to have left her unhealthily focused on her daughter. There had been no men in Carol's life for the past ten years, and few enough female friends, only Alice, who she had managed to keep close to her through it all. When Alice proclaimed that she wasn't ready to go to college and instead wanted to stay at home and teach classes at the dojo, Carol had voiced token protests about her needing to "spread her wings" and "see the world" but had secretly rejoiced at holding onto her daughter for just a little longer. Though Alice seemed to believe that Carol had been pushing her to date, Hatter got the impression that this was a bit of reverse psychology in action. It was hard to believe that cynical, skeptical Alice could fall for such a simple trick, but, Hatter reasoned, these things were most insidious close to home.

Carol was ever more forcefully straightening coasters and picture frames, and Hatter shook himself free of his reverie with a little cough.

"I suppose I'd best be uh...shoving off. Maybe I'll go by the hospital, see if I can walk Alice home." He treated Carol to a rather charming smile and rose from the couch.

Carol sighed and straightened. She put on a smile that seemed even more forced than ever.

"I suppose it must be boring for you here, _David_. I don't blame you for running off."

"Oh no Mrs. Hamilton, there's nothing I'd like more than to keep you company, I just thought I might catch Alice..."

Hatter trailed off as he reached the door, surprised at Carol's frosty attitude. She'd been increasingly displeased with his presence, but always kept her disapproval strictly under wraps. Today, it seemed to be leaking through. Briefly, Hatter wondered if it was some sort of unpleasant anniversary. It was June, nowhere near her husband's March 23rd disappearance.

"Hmph."

This was beginning to tick Hatter off. He turned abruptly to face her.

"Excuse me?"

Though he used a mild tone it was more than clear that he was not pleased with Carol's attitude.

"You heard me, if you're _bored_ here don't let me keep you." She rounded on Hatter, pointing at him as though she were driving him from the building and her daughter's life. She walked briskly toward Hatter, causing him to back up as he retreated from the barrage of Carol's unstable emotions. "Just let me tell you, if you get bored with my daughter and just run off, I won't be held responsible--she should never find out what that feels like!"

At this, Carol broke down, kneeling on the floor and sobbing. My my, thought Hatter, she's mad! He laughed a little before he clamped down on himself, remembering that momentarily mad or not, Carol would likely judge any of his behavior that seemed off and use it against him to Alice later on. With a silent sigh, Hatter knelt and tried to do the noble thing. He tentatively patted Carol on the back.

"Hey there, it's okay, yeah? Nothing to worry about. You're fine, Alice is fine."

At this Carol only sobbed harder.

"Hey now, none of that. What's the matter then?"

Hatter continued to pat Carol's back in what he hoped was a soothing way. Suddenly, as though a dam burst, words burst out of Carol in a torrent.

"I can't help it...ever since Robert left...I just wanted to keep her safe, happy--it's so hard, being left behind. I just don't want her to feel that pain."

"Hoh...so this is about your husband!" Hatter said, perhaps a shade too brightly. Somehow it was a weight off his mind that this animosity wasn't personal.

"Him! That bastard! Leaving us and running off to," --sob--, "Argentina! How could he? I trusted him, and he abandoned us! If I ever find him, I'll kill him!"

With this forceful statement Carol pounded on the ground and broke into a fresh wave of angry tears.

"Ah, well, Carol, that's perhaps a little harsh. It's not like he abandoned you really, at least, not on purpose--and you know, it's not good to speak ill of the dead."

Hatter placed his hands to his lips as he realized what he'd said and hoped the woman was too distraught to have understood what he was saying.

"Anyway, I'm not leaving Alice. I know I'm not always on time to dinner and such, but let me tell you it's not easy running a business on a different temporospatial plane than your girlfriend. Always jetting back and forth, no way to take into account the rain..." he sighed. "But the point is, I lo--l-like Alice a whole lot--bunches--and I would never leave her. Certainly not after what we've been through. And I'm not going to stop coming round just because you're worried I'm not suitable. Why, if I gave up every time someone called me unsuitable, I'd be me before I met Alice, and we all saw how far that got me, so. Yeah."

Hatter's eyes widened. Had that been...the truth? Where had his considerable powers of lies and deceit got off to when he needed them? He groaned as he realized that this was probably an effect of Carol's righteous indignation and hurt at being--she believed--deceived and abandoned. He should have stayed across the room. What possessed him to try to comfort a distressed human? It's a wonder he hadn't burst into tears himself.

As far as calming Carol went, his speech seemed to have done the trick. She now seemed perfectly collected, quiet, and certain that he was a psychopath.

"Damn damn damn," he chanted under his breath. This day was just not going well at all.

***

What do you think? Should I write more, not bother?

Let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

"Hatter, what on earth are you talking about?" Carol looked at him with a clear gaze as she delivered this question, despite having rather puffy eyes from her earlier outburst.

Hatter looked away sheepishly, thoroughly ashamed of his little speech that gave away the game. What would Alice say when she found out? He rose from where he'd been kneeling by Carol and quickly backed away across the room, hoping that the distance would allow him to sort out his thoughts and find a way out of the hole he'd dug for himself. So far, three seconds in, it did not seem to be working.

He hedged.

"Why'd you call me that now? David is my real name you know. At least, part of it. I wasn't lying to you."

This came out sounding a little more sulky than he'd intended, but it did serve to distract Carol for the moment.

"I don't know. It's what Alice calls you. It somehow suits you better, I suppose," she replied musingly.

Before Hatter could think to take the conversation in another direction or to just plain abandon ship and leave the apartment, Carol continued,

"Somehow it's easier to think of you as some kind of entrepreneur than a construction worker. I've never once seen you wearing work boots or look anything less than perfectly clean and presentable. Not that I can see how you get any work done at all--you've been hanging around here every day for the past two weeks! And then there's all this business of 'everything' you and Alice have been through together. When could this possibly have happened? Alice says she met you in England last summer, but she was only there for ten days for a karate competition and I spoke to her on the phone every night. When would she have possibly had time to meet you, let alone become involved? Can you honestly tell me that's when you met?"

"...No."

Damn. This was worse than the time the Mock Turtle fed Hatter half a bottle of concentrated honesty and sent him on a date with his niece. At least then he had some power to dodge the questions. Here, he seemed compelled to answer. He just hoped it didn't end with a slap in the face and a door slam the way the other time had.

Carol looked at him keenly, somewhat surprised that he had actually contradicted Alice's story outright.

"Then when did you meet? How did you possibly have had time to miss her before the first time you came here?"

"Well, when I said no to your previous question, what I mean is that..."

Carol fixed him with a piercing no-nonsense stare that reminded him uncomfortably of his own mother, god rest her soul. Hatter sighed.

"Alice isn't going to like that we're having this conversation."

"Now you're saying something I can believe easily. Whether or not Alice wants us to talk, I need to know what she's gotten herself involved in. She may act like she's all grown up, but Alice has actually led a very sheltered life. I would hate to think she's gotten involved in something dangerous, but if she has, I need to know."

Hatter objected to the sincerely worried expression on Carol's face as she braced herself for the worst.

"Oi! There nothing dodgy going on here. You may not realize this but Alice can take care of herself, and has a very well defined sense of right and wrong. One that I hear about on a regular basis. The thing is that some of this is a little hard for an oyst--a regular person such as yourself I mean--to grasp. Nothing bad, just different. Can't you just trust Alice to know what's good for Alice, and let it go?"

There, that was a good tactic. The effects of Carol's emotions must be wearing off. This thought calmed Hatter immensely. He relaxed enough to cross his arms and lean against the doorway. He continued,

"In fact, if there's something you're really concerned about Alice getting up to, why don't you talk about it with her? What with the two of you being so close and all..."

Carol looked a bit stricken at the implication that this issue might be between her and Alice. She quickly rallied.

"I might if I ever saw her alone. However, these days I can't even have breakfast without you popping up unannounced. So I'll ask you again: How did you meet my daughter?"

The intensity of the question shot through his soul, and Hatter couldn't help but resolve to tell what he had to tell to get out of this situation. He sighed once again. These interactions were turning him into something of a sigher.

"We met when Alice was out looking for her old boyfriend. She stumbled into a place she shouldn't have, and I tried to help her get out. She was amazing--so determined to find him, she wouldn't budge til she had. Turned out though, not everything was as it seemed." Hatter paused. "So, she finally ditched the prince and deigned to get pizza with me."

There, that wasn't too bad of a job. He prayed that Carol would leave it at that, but he feared, correctly as it turned out, that she was a little too sharp to accept such a vague tale.

"Boyfriend? Do you mean Jack Chase? But she had him over to dinner the very night she ended up in the hospital. There was no way that she could have possibly done all of that in an hour. She was only out of my sight for maybe ninety minutes from when I left the two of them alone after dinner until I rushed to the emergency room after getting your call."

And it all came back to the time difference. That bloody time difference that left him wet and late and lonely in Wonderland for weeks at a time while Alice got to see him every day. She didn't even miss him. It was hard to be the only one in a long distance relationship. He tried to talk to Alice about it, but she would only mention something about him getting a place in her world. No thought to the tea shop that he'd invested so much in, no thought to his friends and hat collection and employees who might cheat him in his absence. Something had to give. Maybe, he mused, telling it all to Carol would force the issue with Alice, and they could have a real talk about her finally coming back to Wonderland with him. She might have had enough of it for a lifetime, but it was his _home_, blast it!

Already, Hatter felt himself going on the defensive against an imaginary Alice. She wouldn't like that he involved her mum just because they were having some issues. It wouldn't be like he was using Carol though, because she could benefit in all sorts of ways from learning Wonderland's recent history. Once she realized that Robert hadn't left her for the sandy beaches of Argentina (was Argentina a place with sandy beaches, Hatter wondered) she could finally mourn her loss and put her past behind her. It wouldn't hurt that she'd likely relax her stranglehold on Alice too.

"Tell me," Hatter said, "Did Alice seem a bit _surprised_ when you told her how long she'd been missing?"

Carol looked a little taken aback by the question, but answered readily enough.

"Now that you mention it, she did act a little funny when I told her. And she didn't ask how long she was unconscious, she asked how long she was there. It just seemed odd, since she didn't seem to remember about the building at all. Where was 'there'?"

Hatter laughed.

"Aha, you're a sharp one you are, you've half figured it out yourself, anyway. Alice was surprised, not because I found her in an abandoned house--which I did by the way--but because she was somewhere entirely different for a lot longer than a single hour."

He looked at Carol expectantly with a chuckle, which she found unnerving. Did he expect her to accept something so completely illogical?

"That doesn't make any sense! What are you trying to say?"

Hatter looked a little disappointed that she hadn't just leapt to the correct conclusion on her own. This would make the discussion considerably more difficult. He held in a sigh, since he was really getting tired of them.

"Hmm. Alice seemed to have some trouble with this when I explained it to her, and she was on the other side of the looking glass at the time. I suppose there's nothing for it. So here's the honest truth, Carol: Alice chased a White Rabbit who she thought had kidnapped her boyfriend through the looking glass into another world. Once there, she met me, a lot of daring deeds were done, a politico-economic situation was altered, and Alice got to meet her father after ten years."

Carol was silent, more than a little shocked by this speech, and not at all sure that her daughter's new boyfriend was not a dangerous lunatic.

Hatter sensed that he was losing his audience, so he hastened on nervously,

"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, since I guess Alice didn't tell you, but your husband, after ten years of imprisonment--your time--died a noble death freeing a lot of other people from your world and allowing them to go back to their lives. Alice was with him at the end."

Ending with his head bowed gravely, Hatter wondered if perhaps he had not built up to the subject sufficiently. He decided to leave off the part about him avenging Robert's death for the moment, until he had a bit more of a sense of Carol's perspective on such things. In most places Hatter knew of, offing the murderer of a family member would pretty much assure an in with the family, but he suspected this might be an exception to that rule.

"What--why would you say something like that? How could you make up a story like that? Are you crazy?"

Despite her growing fear that the man with her in her living room was some sort of psychopath, Carol couldn't help but be troubled by what he had said about her husband. When Alice woke up at the hospital, the first thing she'd said was "Dad's gone" and as soon as she returned home, she packed up her maps and father-finding resources. Carol had wanted to think that the shock of the accident had forced Alice to reevaluate the way she spent her time. However, knowing Alice, something like a tumble down some broken stairs and temporary loss of consciousness was unlikely to sway her from something she considered her life's mission.

Carol had always known that there was a possibility that her husband had met with some accident after leaving her and Alice, but she never really believed he was dead. Now this nutjob who showed up at her house every day with a different hat was trying to tell her that her husband was abducted ten years ago and brought to another world and had just now died. With Alice there. It was absurd. It was completely unfair that this person could come into her home and harass her like this.

"Excuse me, did you just say _Alice_ and _through the looking glass_? a _White Rabbit_? You are dangerously out of touch with reality young man. I think this conversation is over. Please go, and don't try to contact us again or you'll be facing a restraining order."

Carol tried to sound confident, but something about this situation was confusing her. Things weren't adding up. As much as she did not like the way Hatter swooped in and took up all of Alice's time, this was the first hint she'd had that he was disturbed. Usually Alice could be trusted to make good character judgments. Apparently not this time.

"Carol."

Hatter looked at her squarely, with a bit of pity lurking in his expression.

"I'm telling you the truth. I know it's not nice and doesn't match up with how you think about the universe and reality, but that doesn't make it untrue. You must be a pretty amazing woman to have raised a daughter like Alice. If she could deal with all of this while it was happening, you can deal with hearing about it. Don't be childish."

Suddenly Carol was furious. How dare he talk down to her, accuse _her _of being childish, of all things! All thoughts about the best ways to deal with mentally unstable people rushed from her head, and she couldn't help but challenge him, force him to confront his own wild stories.

"Prove it," she said.

***

dun dun dun...poor Hatter. He is in for it now!

Sorry it's taking me so long to actually get to Wonderland, but that's scheduled for next time so tune in!

Thanks bunches to everyone who reviewed! Those reviews are definitely what got this chapter out so soon, so more of that kind of thing could be good for both of us, if you are interested in where the story is going. Yay!


	3. Chapter 3

3. Hatter proves a point and tells a tale

Hatter was a bit aghast. He had thought that this conversation would begin and end with words alone, no actions or proofs necessary. What incredibly deep pit was his huge mouth digging him into now?

Then again, why not? Why not take Carol back with him through the looking glass? It should be safe enough for oysters now, and everyone had been expecting him to bring Alice back through for months now, so if he took her mum for a preview, it shouldn't be anything major. He could deal with a few thugs himself anyway. Once Carol saw the world on the other side of the mirror, she'd know he was telling the truth about how he met Alice, and they could visit the Carpenter's grave so that she could have some closure regarding her husband.

Before he could think about any downsides, Hatter exclaimed,

"All right then. Grab a coat Mrs. Hamilton, and we'll go get your proof. It's not far."

"Go?"

Carol was still shaking with anger, but was unwilling to back down in front of this man. She stomped past Hatter, who was still in the living room doorway, grabbing her coat off the hook by the apartment door. Not wanting to lose the momentum, Hatter hurried to the door and held it open for Carol. He would have to get over to and through the looking glass quickly so that they would be back in plenty of time to meet Alice on her way home from the hospital. Just to be on the safe side, Hatter decided to make it a short trip. A day, or even just an afternoon should be fine. A quick trip through, a few tears at a graveside, and home in time for tea.

Hatter led the way out of the Hamiltons' apartment building with a light step. Carol followed with the weight of anger in every stomp.

They made their way down a few streets and up a back alley or two in a matter of minutes. Hatter glanced over his shoulder regularly to be sure Carol was still following him, and he was glad to see that she remained resolute despite the rather iffy neighborhood they were traversing. Soon he found the correct doorway and lead Carol up the stairs to where the looking glass lay against a whole wall of the room.

She looked so surprised to actually see it that Hatter couldn't help but give a bit of a chuckle.

"Told ya," he smirked.

Before Carol could lose her nerve or even get too indignant, he reached over and seized her arm, hauling her through the glass ahead of him.

The journey separated them physically, and it was all Hatter could do not to trip over Carol's prone form as they exited the glass on the other side. Two Rabbits descended to help her up before he'd even regained his balance.

"Who's this then?" one of them asked.

"No unauthorized visitors," barked the other.

"Relax mates. This is Alice's mum, making her the Carpenter's wife, so I'd say she's entitled to a visit." He lowered his voice and took one aside a bit, "Or shall I go and tell the king how she's been ejected from Wonderland without a proper introduction?"

"Let 'em pass," said one Rabbit to the other.

"Thank you," Hatter said, herding Carol toward the door despite her wide-eyed stares and gaping mouth.

Once outside she could barely contain herself.

"Hatter-what in the world just happened? Where are we? Who were those men and why did they know who Alice is? Why did you call me the Carpenter's wife?"

Hatter interrupted this torrent of questions before it could get any more unmanageable. He indicated for Carol to walk with him along the edge of this tier. The area was being rehabilitated, but it still wasn't near the sort of spot he wanted to show Alice's mother to make a good impression.

"Um," he said, collecting his thoughts. "Interdimensional travel by looking glass; Wonderland, looking glass sector; White Rabbits, sort of security here; Alice as I mentioned earlier was instrumental in a bit of political upheaval here a small while back, now there's few in the capital the don't know her; your husband was known as the Carpenter here. I don't think he rightly remembered being Robert Hamilton after what they did to him in the casinos."

Carol stopped walking.

"What did they do to him?"

Hatter turned to look her in the face.

"I don't know the specifics of it, I've never been on the science team, but I suppose it was something that got him to forget all about his life with you and Alice and focus on doing the job they gave him. He remembered at the end, though."

Carol looked so distraught that Hatter sincerely wished they weren't so close to a twenty-story drop. It absolutely would not do to let Alice's mum leap into the ether in a fit of grief. Hatter grabbed her elbow, not ungently, and urged her on.

"We've got to go on," he said. "This isn't the place for the whole story."

Much as he wanted to take Carol back to his shop where they could both relax, Hatter doubted they would be getting that far before she demanded the rest of what he knew. Perhaps it'd be best to get her down to the lake near the palace. It was picturesque, and close enough to both the cemetery and the king if she absolutely needed answers from another familiar source, though he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Let's get down to ground level and see if we can't get a boat out of this place. The whole sector gives me the creeps to be honest, and it's nothing like the rest of Wonderland. A terrible first impression really. Can't they move that glass somewhere less. . .or more. . ." he trailed off as Carol stood frozen, seeming not to have attended to anything he'd said.

"Was it really not his fault?" she whispered.

"Come on, we'll go talk about it somewhere else," Hatter urged. He practically dragged her over to a transport platform so that they could descend with minimal fuss. Carol seemed unnerved by the ten foot square of turf that was rapidly approaching the ground.

"Just like one of your elevators," he soothed.

Carol continued to look about herself in suspicious amazement as they made their way down to the canal. Hatter had to intimidate another pair of Rabbits into checking him out a boat, but he was getting to be quite good at that, so it wasn't long before they were speeding along the lake. Carol looked like she might possibly be going into shock, so Hatter quickly chose a place to go ashore. It appeared to be some sort of long-abandoned lakefront estate, but thankfully there were some not-too-rusty wrought iron chairs positioned for viewing the lake, and Hatter wasted no time sitting Carol into one. Alice would never forgive him if her mother went catatonic.

"Carol!" he cried, looking for a reaction. He hesitated for a few seconds and then slapped her sharply on the cheek.

"God! What was that for?" she gasped.

"Sorry, so sorry! I just thought I was losing you for a minute there. Alice would skin me alive if anything happened to you on my watch. And you had asked for the whole story. About your husband. Not that I have the whole story for you, but I've found out bits and pieces over the past few months."

She looked at him with an expression that he found very hard to read. He worried again about her leaking emotions that he couldn't even identify and scooted his chair back a bit from hers before seating himself.

"Few months? But you said all this happened two weeks ago!"

Great! If she could ask a question like that, Carol Hamilton should be just fine. She was a tough one after all. Hatter felt quite relieved.

"Well, as we discussed earlier, Alice's whole adventure here in Wonderland took her out of your world for only a few minutes, maybe a half an hour all told. However, it was several days here. Time runs completely separately in our dimensions. It's a bit of a risk going back and forth, because you never know exactly when you'll end up. As a vague translation, for every day that passes in your world, a little more than a fortnight passes here. However it's occasionally much less, like the times when I'm hoping to have missed an interview with my accountant."

He smiled, but was met only with a scowl.

"So if my husband was missing for ten years in our world, then how could he possibly have been here up until a few weeks ago? He would have died generations ago!"

"Ouch, well, you do go straight for the tricky ones, don't ya. Even Alice hasn't tackled this one yet," Hatter took a moment to resettle his hat as he thought how best to address this question.

"So. Our world has different natural laws, maybe you'd call them, or guidelines anyway, about time. Is it so far-fetched to think it might also have some different ones governing growth and aging? Well, maybe. But it's true. We have nothing like your born-grow-up-have-children-grow-old-die cycle. At least not over and over and over like you all do it. Most of us were born, some were hatched. We can age, or not, if we like. We can certainly die, but it's still not the same as in your world. I don't exactly know how it works, since I've never wanted to find out myself, but some can return from beyond the veil. Be reborn, or just sort of er, re-spawn I think it's called in your world? Sometimes of their own volition, if they're powerful enough, but sometimes they need help. And children-well, that's an entirely different matter."

Hatter decided to leave that complicated and confusing topic alone for the moment, since it wasn't really pertinent to the current discussion. Also because it made him feel slightly sick to his stomach. Mostly in a bad way, but maybe a teeny tiny little bit in a sort of anticipatory way. Or maybe that was just hunger gnawing at his stomach. It really had been some time since his last meal. He forced his eyes back to Alice's mother from where they had been staring out across the lake.

Carol was looking at him as if he had confessed to liking to dress in women's underthings, rather than offered her a reasonable explanation! He fumed. More reasonable than she's going to get out of most of this lot in Wonderland.

"So you are saying that my husband lived here for more than a hundred years working on some project that he was specifically abducted to do. Why? Why on earth would anyone from your world have any interest in my husband? He was a university professor in psychology for goodness sake, not some sort of experimental research scientist. And while I'm sure he'd tell you his areas of expertise were vital to understanding the human condition I can't see what value they could possibly have to anyone in your world."

Carol looked at him intensely, her eyes fraught with this same volatile emotion he'd had trouble classifying before.

Okay, so, now was the time when he had to explain what they'd been doing with all those oysters in Wonderland. It needed to be done with finesse, or she'd get the wrong idea about everyone in Wonderland. He needed to downplay his own part in the racket and put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Queen of Hearts where it belonged, and well, if a little spilled onto Jack Heart so much the better for Hatter.

"You see, Carol, once upon a time there was a little girl named Alice, who came to Wonderland from your world and changed everything. Not our Alice, of course, no, this one was a rude little thing all blonde curls and blue eyes and squeaky little voice. She was only here twice, I believe, and then went back to her world-your world-for good, but while she was here, the most remarkable discovery was made. I'm not quite sure who first realized it. You can be sure the Queen of Hearts took all the credit, but it was more likely someone else from her court who noticed. You see, every emotion felt by the girl had the most incredible effect on the people and creatures of Wonderland. Her very presence was intoxicating, but since her emotions were so wild and uncontrolled quite a bit of her effect worked to make people feel terrible about themselves or desire to prove themselves to her in one way or another.

"Whoever noticed this, it was the Queen of Hearts who ordered experimentation done to see whether this phenomenon was unique to this one child, and they found that it was not. Any person from your world could sort of transfer their emotions to those of Wonderland. So. The queen set some people to working on the project, trying to see whether or not these emotions, or rather their effect on the denizens of Wonderland, could be put to use.

"Her team found out how to harvest and distill positive emotions. These became the not just the currency of Wonderland, but the reason for most people's existence. She came out with them, providing drops for free at first, then they became to payment for any and all work done or services rendered. But that wasn't enough for her. She pushed to keep discovering more refined and exotic emotions. She needed to keep the public in thrall, so that no one could rise up against her. So she started casting her net in your world for an expert. Someone with knowledge of human emotions and how to evoke ever more specific ones."

"And she found Robert."

"Eventually, yes."

"That bitch," fumed Carol, brimming with anger.

Hatter sprung up from his seat and backed a few paces away.

"Carol, please. You've got to bear in mind what I said. Your emotions are dangerous here. Let's move on and maybe you can calm yourself a bit as we go."

"Go where? You've pretty well proven that this place exists."

The Hatter took a few steps toward her and removed his hat, twirling it in his hands nervously.

"I thought you might like to visit your husband, in the royal cemetery, I mean."

"Oh. I see." Carol's anger dissipated for the moment, but it was replaced by a wave of such staggering melancholy that Hatter himself staggered.

"Let's go."

A/N –

Ha. So, I have been beating myself up about starting things but never finishing them, and this fic is a prime example. I always knew exactly where I wanted to go with it, and even that it needn't be terribly long. And still, it has languished unfinished for an embarrassingly long time. I started a story for Tim Burton's AiW that also involves mothers through looking glasses, so I thought I ought to return some attention to this one.

Thanks for reading!

bb


	4. Chapter 4

4.

They picked their way through the forested countryside, Hatter only pausing when Carol seemed to need to catch her breath. It would have been shorter to take the boat further along the lake to the Heart's Palace and then straight back through the hills, but Hatter had avoided Jack Heart's interference so far, and would rather not have to deal with him if it could be helped.

Eventually the forest gave way to a somewhat run-down but still managed park. An avenue of pin oaks lead to the grand mausoleums of the royal families, but the area back toward the hills was where those associated with the Heart family were buried. Hatter led Carol on toward the grave of the Carpenter.

"Just a bit further on Carol," he encouraged.

Rather than continuing to follow him down the brick-lined path, Carol stopped.

"Why do you know where my husband is buried? Has Alice ever come here?" she asked somewhat hesitantly, as if unsure of whether or not she wanted to know his answer.

"No. Alice has never been back to Wonderland at all. Just the one time and, well, she says she's had enough of it if you must know."

Carol absorbed this information, as well as the way it seemed to bother the Hatter more that he wished to let on that Alice refused to return to his homeland.

"As to the other, I attended his funeral. Alice declined to join me."

They resumed their walk through the rows of quiet dead, with the Hatter tromping miserably on.

They continued on in silence for a while, which Hatter was extremely grateful for. Thinking about the day he'd asked Alice to come back with him to attend her father's memorial never failed to make him feel sick. Granted, she hadn't had much time to think about it. While a good week had passed in Wonderland, Alice had only spent one night in her own home before he asked her about the funeral in the morning. Hatter had known that Alice had many unresolved abandonment issues despite her assertions directly after the fact that seeing her father one last time had given her the closure she needed to let him go. Still, he had not expected the vitriolic anger with which she had shifted the blame that she used to place on her father onto the whole of Wonderland.

"Go back?" she had asked blankly, as if it had never even occurred to her that it was possible. As if he hadn't already been back-and-forth three times for her in scarcely twelve of her hours.

"Just for the service, you know," he'd hastily added, not wanting to ask too much of her or give her the wrong idea. Not that it would technically be a wrong idea if she thought he'd like to spend time with her in Wonderland, in fact that was actually an idea he hoped she'd come round to, but Hatter sensed it would be best to start small.

"I have to teach class this afternoon," she said as if that settled it.

"Alice, you know we could spend three days backpacking in the Sferren Goodlands in Wonderland and still be back here in a matter of minutes. They're waiting the service on you anyway. Many would like to pay their respects but the King insisted on asking you first. So would you? Come home with me, please?"

Hatter hated sounding so vulnerable in front of Alice, but she still seemed to shake off all his layers of armour and leave him open. Was this an effect of her being an oyster? An Alice? Or maybe it was just her own special trick. He didn't know, but he couldn't say he cared for the way she constantly threw him off balance while maintaining her own.

Alice turned away from him. They were sitting in her room, and she'd been showing him something or other on the screen they used for entertainment and communication in her world. He'd been asking about the types of tea they had, since he'd been changing over to actually selling actual tea in his teashop. Alice had bounded over to her screen-and-typewriter setup and had been happily typing things in and reading things out while he sat beside her in a chair, contemplating the open door and the "my house my rules" talk he and Alice had been treated to by Carol the night before (a week and a half ago for Hatter.) Then he'd said what he needed to say about the funeral, and Alice had shut right down, her eyes going shuttered and her voice cold.

"Alice," he'd all but pleaded, "it would mean so much to have you there."

"To who? To all the people who stole him and used him up and killed him? I somehow doubt that anyone in That Place cared about my father."

"You don't know that Alice. He lived and worked with the science team of the Hearts Palace for a long time. There's plenty of good people there, sure they worked for the queen, but so did your father. It's not as if they had any more choice than he did about it."

"Were their memories erased? Were they made to leave and forget their wives and children? I don't appreciate you trying to make our case seem like and every-day occurrence!" cried Alice.

As much as he wanted to yell, yes, they probably were, and yes, it probably was, he didn't think that would help the situation. Alice clearly wanted to feel put upon and angry and Special, and her case was special, just maybe not these parts. So Hatter bit his tongue and tried another tack.

"Charlie was hoping to see you. He asks about you every time, can't believe you won't come back through to see your most loyal knight or something."

Alice just put her head down and turned away from him. "Everyone in Wonderland has been fine for centuries without me. I think they'll be able to keep soldiering on."

"But Alice, things weren't 'just fine'. We had a meglomaniacal monarch intent on dosing up the entire population with positive human feelings."

"And not one of you bothered to deal with this on your own."

"Alice, that's not fair. You well know there was an entire resistance organization dedicated to overthrowing the Queen. Including the prince himself!" his voice softened, and he added in a mumble, "Including me."

"And what did that accomplish? You just pandered to the Queen! You all need to learn to solve your own problems without dragging innocents into them."

"It was the Queen who took your father, Alice. Plain and simple."

"The Queen took my father, but the resistance took me. Manipulated me into going through the glass. The Queen may have been some big baddie, but the rest of you used me, needed my involvement for some reason to make things finally happen."

"And for that we are grateful. Please give me a chance to show you that, Alice. Give Wonderland a chance."

His desperation seemed to finally make an impression on her, but she was still unwilling to listen to his pleas on behalf of his world.

"Oh Hatter, I don't want to sound like I'm mad at you. I know you had nothing to do with dragging me into Wonderland. But the rest of them, all those people who did nothing and stood by knowing my father was stolen from his world...I just can't forgive that so easily."

Then she jumped up, asked him whether he fancied breakfast from the Mexican diner down the street and pulled him out the door without waiting for a response.

Hatter had tried to bring up the idea of attending the funeral again, but had been shut down each time. He finally resolved to go back after lunch and tell the King to just go ahead with it. And so Hatter, Charlie, Jack, a whole pack of suits and the entire science division formerly of Heart's Casino stood in solemn silence while the Carpenter was laid to rest in the royal cemetery. Just over the next rise and he'd be back in that spot.

"There's so many, for a world where people don't age," Carol remarked, looking at the gravestones, many with a heart, spade, diamond, or club shaped headstone.

"Well," said Hatter, "If age doesn't get you something else will. Wonderland hasn't been the safest of places these past hundred years or so. It's getting better though. Much as I may not be the hugest fan of the leader of the new regime, it is definitely a vast improvement over the former Queen of Hearts."

They crested a slight hill, and Hatter pointed toward where he knew the grave site to be. However, when he looked closer there was a disturbingly empty rectangle of earth going down at least the traditional seven feet deep. A deuce of spades in the old-fashioned livery of the castle gardeners was slowly filling it in.

Hatter exchanged a disturbed look with Carol, and they both rushed up to the grave. He got there slightly before Carol, mostly due to his more practical footwear. Though Carol was thankfully in flats, the smooth soles left her slipping a bit on the grass.

"Oi!" Hatter cried, "What's this then? Where's the bloody Carpenter?"

The Deuce turned around in surprise, leaning on his spade as he took in the sight of Hatter, who everyone more or less knew by sight, and an older lady in an off-white pantsuit who he'd never seen before. Carol was panting with both exertion and distress.

"Wilikers!" exclaimed the Deuce, clearly reeling from what Carol was putting out. "Dunno where he is, honest sir! They 'ad me take up the sod and dig 'im up yesterday. Orders from the King they was. Straight from the King!"

Seeing the poor chump's reaction reminded Hatter how hard oyster emotions hit his kind. He himself was somewhat...inured due to his position as Teashop owner, which Alice had unkindly likened to an opium den of the late 1800s. It wasn't that he was an addict like the customers he served, though he could hardly refuse to take tea in his own shop with the big spenders and suppliers from the Queen's Court. He just dealt with the stuff all day, every day and had become used to it.

"Why in the world would your King dig up my husband's body?" asked Carol, confused and appalled.

Well, Hatter could think of one reason, but they'd talked about this before the funeral-well before actually. It was one of his first questions on being called up to see the King after his first visit to Alice's world: could the Carpenter be revived? Jack Heart had sighed and Hatter had believed him when he'd said that unfortunately the only person with the expertise needed to reanimate the Carpenter was the Carpenter. Possibly the Walrus, but they'd have just as many problems getting him back up and running and there was no one who particularly relished the idea of trying.

So besides breathing life back into Robert Hamilton's body in order to curry favor with Alice, what reason would the King have for digging up the ex-head of the science division? Hatter couldn't think of a single one.

"'Er 'usband?" squawked the deuce. "'oo's she then?"

"I am Carol Hamilton, and the grave you have disturbed belonged to my husband, Robert Hamilton."

"Caroll. Like, _the author_?" The gravedigger's voice went low and his eyes went wide.

"No, not the author you idiot!" replied Hatter swiftly, shrugging apologetically at a very bewildered Carol.

He sighed (again with the mournful exhalations!) and turned to face Carol. Bugger all, he really hadn't wanted to do this.

"Well, it seems our hand's been forced, Mrs. Hamilton. Let's go see the King," he said regretfully.

"The King?" she repeated.

"Yes," he paused, really not wanting to go into all of this. "I believe you're acquainted. Our new monarch is Jack Heart, the son of the former Queen, though I believe you knew him as Jack Chase."

"Jack? Chase? You mean...Alice's boyfriend? The nice-looking one with marvelous teeth who came to dinner?"

Hatter gritted his own not-so-perfect teeth. "I don't know about all of that, just about how he lured Alice to Wonderland to try to upset the balance of power and usurp the throne."

"But you were just saying how horrible the Queen was and how you liked the new King."

"No, Carol," he snapped, "I did not say that I liked the King. Not one bit. I admitted that the new regime is definitely less bloodthirsty and more civic-minded, but personally, I am not a fan of that poncy high-handed Alice-manipulating. . ." Hatter just sort of trailed off into inaudible mumbles, mostly because he was trying very hard to mind his language around Carol, and because he knew he would have to act civil when confronting Jack. Civil, after all, was what kept him able to travel through the Looking Glass at will. It was what kept him from having to choose between Alice and his world. At least, for now.

The distance to the current palace was short. While there was much debate about whether or not the King would build a new palace in the style of the Casino or an entirely different style, for now the administration occupied the historic Hearts Estate. This was a hastily-renovated mid-thirteenth-century monstrosity located very near to the cemetery, which was convenient for them.

Hatter and Carol strode back through the cemetery but turned off into the gardens behind the Hearts Estate. No way was Hatter going to go all the way round to the front. It was much too long a walk, and Carol didn't need to be any more impressed with Jack, so the splendid approach would just have to be viewed some other day.

He kept up his pace right through the parterre gardens, stepping over some inconveniently placed shrubbery and then up onto the terrace. Carol managed to hurry after him, until they were both stopped at the French doors leading inside by a couple of suits. A few muttered words into their headsets, however, and Hatter and Carol were being ushered into a splendid but decidedly anachronistic drawing room. Early Renaissance tapestries covered walls with prettily patterned Edwardian wallpaper and a mod-looking black and white striped rug covered the original flagstone floors.

The King rose from a royal blue brocade wing-back chair to greet them.

"Ah, Carol. So lovely to see you again. Though I regret the circumstances that have doubtless brought you here."

He took her unresisting hand, and though he didn't quite go so far as to kiss it, he made some sort of bowing motion that seemed to work on Carol, for the tension drained out of her and she said warmly, "Jack. It's a relief to see a familiar face in this place."

Hatter bit back a scream of indignation. Had he or had he not just personally shepherded Carol around Wonderland on the trip she requested? She had met Jack what, once? Twice? Did he even come to see Alice after she'd been in hospital? No. Hatter had been an almost-constant presence for the past two weeks, but Jack who she'd known all of a day longer was the familiar face she'd longed to see? Unbearable. He started to rethink the necessity of getting Carol on his side.

"I am terribly sorry for your loss. It was unfortunate that neither you nor Alice could make it to the memorial. However, I am happy to say that we may be able to do something about the situation after all."

Jack Heart finally took his eyes from Carol's face and acknowledged the sullen Hatter lingering in the doorway.

"Have you prepared Mrs. Hamilton for the possibility of reanimation?" he asked.

"I didn't like to mention it specifically, as you said it was impossible when I asked," he grumbled. "However, I explained to Carol earlier that life and death don't follow the same course in Wonderland."

"Reanimation," Carol gasped, looking once again as though she might faint.

Jack solicitously ushered Carol over to a chaise lounge and helped her to seat herself.

"Of course this must come as a shock to you," he soothed, "it was most unkind to bring it up so suddenly into the conversation."

Even though Jack had been the one to use the word, Hatter got the feeling he'd just been blamed for her reaction.

"When you're feeling more yourself, we can go down to the laboratories, where the technicians have been preparing for the procedure. They have everything organized; we were just waiting for someone who knew Robert personally in your world to help revive him. We'd thought to have Alice do it, but when I heard you'd arrived earlier, we had a lab prepped for your arrival. Of course we would have been happy to send a transport to save you all the trouble of walking, but you'd gone before I had a chance to order one."

Great, more blame piled on top of Hatter. As if he hadn't realized this would be his reception bring Carol straight to the King. At least the way things went he'd had a bit of a chance to give Carol the real story. This blighter was still harbouring feelings for Alice and seemed determined to make Carol forget entirely that it was his mother who had stolen Robert Hamilton in the first place and he himself who was sent to lure Alice away from her home into the perils of Wonderland.

"No, no, I'm fine. Please, let's go immediately. I want to finally see my husband again, whatever his. . . status."

Carol stood somewhat shakily, but she seemed determined to find out what they intended to do to her husband's remains. Jack lead them through a labyrinth of wide corridors and stone staircases, down underground to the area the science division had been shunted into after the destruction of their facility at the Casino. Finally they reached a hallway of newly-installed translucent doors. Jack walked up to one and held it open for Carol.

Once inside it was hard to ignore the two steel tables in the room. One held the impeccably-preserved body of Robert Hamilton clothed in his standard science division coverall. The other was empty but a stand nearby held numerous electrodes connected on one end to the body of the deceased. A technician in orange scrubs was reading the meters mounted along one wall. She turned toward them but instead of acknowledging their presence adjusted a dial on one of the tubes attached to the body of the table. Hatter could just barely make out the name "Kyoko" on her badge.

Carol stood there dumbly for a moment, mouth open. Hatter reminded himself that this was the first time Carol had seen her husband in ten years.

"Well, she murmured, "At least he doesn't look like a zombie."

Kyoko advanced and led an unresisting Carol over to the unoccupied table and began attaching the electrodes from the stand to her body one by one.

Carol seemed to come to herself and tried to brush the other woman off. She turned angrily to Jack, who, Hatter was pleased to note, was looking a bit worried.

"Why would you all let us think he was dead-gone forever-when you knew you could bring him back? The first thing Alice said when she woke up in the hospital was 'Dad's gone.' Why would you make her go through the pain and grief of losing her father all over again?"

"Carol," said Jack in that not-quite-openly-smarmy cultured way of his, "We didn't mention anything at first because we weren't sure how the procedure was conducted. It gave us hope to find a set of instructions that the Carpenter had written out himself for carrying out his own reanimation which took into account his origins as an oyster. Your husband, as chief of the science division under the former Queen of Hearts, supervised most of the cases of reanimation required, so it was quite a challenge to perform the procedure without him."

Kyoko the science team lackey pushed her pink glasses up on her nose and continued to adjust the electrodes connecting Carol to the corpse of her dead husband. She added, "That and we'd never had one with its head still on. Death by gunshot was totally new for us, and without the Carpenter to take the lead, we needed time for a bit of trial and error. Biomolecular transdystophia is a tricky business, and doing the whole bit without the boss, well, it's a miracle that we've gotten this far!"

Carol looked deeply concerned at that confidence-boosting declaration, and Jack just shrugged and smiled placatingly.

"I'm sure this opportunity to use your feelings for your husband in the reanimation procedure will more than make up for any difficulties following your husband's notes on the part of the science team."

"That doesn't make any sense at all," said Carol, looking between the man she had encouraged her daughter to pursue and the one who she couldn't get to leave them in peace for breakfast.

"Does any of it?" asked Hatter. "I mean, like I've been telling you all day, the rules are different. If our time runs differently, and we can come back to life and be affected by human emotions then it stands to reason there will be other differences as well. In such a world, why shouldn't your feelings for your husband be more important to resuscitating him than whatever potions and wires the science team here can come up with?"

She looked at him consideringly. "Well, I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else in this place. So you just want me to, what? Think about how my husband makes me feel?"

Kyoko looked at a clipboard. "The emotions that you feed into him will resonate with the parts of his character that manifest most strongly in his new incarnation. We had determination, curiosity, and clinical detachment down as traits to encourage in his file, but if there's something else we should aim for..."

She trailed off and looked at the King, but it was the Hatter who picked up the thread.

"What she's saying, Carol, is that the parts of your husband's personality that will be most obvious right away can be influenced by the emotions that you send him through the link."

He paused, trying to think of a tactful way of saying it, but he just forged ahead, honest as can be. What a terribly awkward spot these Hamiltons put him in!

"I know Alice still has a lot of anger about her father's disappearance and that even though she knows the truth now, and doesn't exactly blame him, it's still part of what she feels when she thinks about him. If that's true for you, which it bloody well seems like it is from the way you were carrying on earlier, then you might want to think good and hard about how that might affect your husband when he comes back."

Carol finally submitted to Kyoko's attempts to get her to lie back on the table. She lay there looking very nervous, and Hatter gave her a surreptitious thumbs up behind Jack's back before they were ushered from the room by a new lackey who showed up at the push of a button from Kyoko. As the door shut, Carol looked across to the body of her husband lying on the cold metal slab across from her, and couldn't help the feeling of anticipation that stole over her, despite how ridiculous and crazy it was to get her hopes up.

A/N

Well, here we are then! Finally, something happened. I hope that it is not too predictable or lame, but this is the idea that had me originally starting this story all that time ago, so it is somewhat of a relief to finally be getting to it! Thanks to any who bother to read this, and please please let me know what you think if you have a moment!


End file.
